the latest news and the week's top story the egyptian president gives up his controversial new powers but stands firm on a draft constitution referendum as the opposition refuses to back down. as fears mount among western nations that syria may on lease its chemical weapons to watch the rebels mattie wonder if it's all just a pretext for iraq the style invasion. israel's been criticized by the international community this week with major powers and the u.n. lambasted with countries legal decision to continue building settlements on palestinian lands.

a.t.m. the russian capital you're watching r t with memory the josh ages president has scrapped the decree that gave him sweeping new powers and effectively put him about the law of the land by the opposition says that's not enough as a referendum on the controversial draft constitution is still scheduled for next week mohamed morsi is standard powers and the charter is islam as lawmakers drop sparked nationwide protests and clashes seven people have been killed and hundreds injured forcing the powerful military to weigh in was interventions threats the general say the government and opposition must reach an agreement or face tough measures to restore order tom dart has more from cairo. demonstration deja vu the call this week some fringe protests against mohamed morsi had to flee but there was an appreciable sense of restraint to be one of them i don't think you

should be able to you think the good friday in the kind of education we get we don't like but like many muhammad was wrong and no. things are starting to look a little like they did two years ago it's been a week of protests in cairo especially here near the presidential palace but a few days ago this very spot was at the center of egypt's political confrontation and then it looked very different petrol bombs fireworks. and a deadly hail of stones it took the army to break it up but as events unfolded pictures of soldiers embracing protesters have called analysts attention it looks like egypt may be about to kick another leader from power bringing the revolution back to square one i think it's dangerous in terms of the military my fears are that the military may. no clear clear the deck for themselves over the barricades attitudes hardened and the arguments became simpler and more forceful less that morsi is the

president thought so i stand by this bit about the list and we will support them with all we have lawmakers rushed through what the opposition say is a pro islam is constitution was no substantial debate perhaps fittingly for the man the opposition is now branding the new pharaoh thousands of protesters are screaming their own message across more seas palace walls. and they're seeing another big paper in the making they're seeing another mubarak and most is really making the same mistakes that. during the january twenty fifth revolution the underlying debate is still whether egypt's new draft constitution is to islamist some politicians convinced it will bring an end to the trouble or desperate for the scheduled referendum on it to go ahead we won't i met

this future and mr bryza say to give the. call for it in putting this map the islamists the army. angry citizens and the president they denounce as a dictator it looks like the same plays on stage with the same activists only this time they have swapped roles and the question for the audience is whether the same bloody climax will be repeated. when the opposition unwilling to back down sounds or are saying president morsi is facing a new revolution that could spiral into civil war he feels that if the vote goes ahead he can marshal his forces in and get the constitution passed. and i think the opposition knows that he can do that there are who are they want to stop that vote but i do want to protest there is a leadership that was once here is that they want to start the process all over again that was zero actually they want

a new election only one new parliament and they're going to change new constitution so what are you going to do you're going to try to kick them out of power if you try to change good match for a new release a civil war you risk we're going the islamist into the students as long as population and. i don't think last year or. so where it's a very very dangerous situation it's potentially very my own situation. now with concerns rising in the west that the syrian regime may use its huge arsenal of chemical weapons another troubling video appeared earlier this week on the web it shows what appears to be a rebel group testing chemical weapons onto a lab rabbits placed in containers after an unknown gas is released and the deaths of both animals amassed person's words to use it against syrian civilians but this

comes as rebel groups from across syria are uniting under one command in the latest western backed africa to topple president bashar asad artie's guided she count looks into whether all the chemical fears of the west are really a prelude to foreign intervention. u.s. officials said intelligence agencies have detected that assad's government has been preparing its chemical weapons stockpiles for possible use the obama administration's message to syria the u.s. is ready to act if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable there will be consequences. there will be consequences we have sent a unmistakable message that this would cross a red line the media quickly picked up on the alarming news of the syrian government's alleged planes citing secret intelligence for fox news confirms that syrian troops now have the deadly nerve agent sarin gas weaponized and at the ready

the syrian government flatly denied the possibility saying it would not use such weapons against its people. we would not commit suicide we fear there's a conspiracy to provide a pretext for any subsequent interventions in syria by these countries during creasing pressure syria the syrian government sure knows that if they use chemical weapons it would give nato and some of their arab neighbors who are itching to intervene in syria the green light to go ahead with their plans damascus itself says it would be suicidal for them to do so but with the fear and the hype building up over the use of chemical weapons against civilians in syria it seems the u.s. might be preparing grounds to jump the gun on this one the jumping the gun scenario is not new for the u.s. almost ten years ago the bush administration confidently presented false evidence to invade iraq america's cited bogus intelligence on saddam hussein's chemical weapons that never existed the invasion triggered

a civil war that killed more than one hundred thousand innocent iraqis and years later all washington had to say about this was the president thought it was correct congress thought it was of course i regret that it turned out a lot of it was wrong in the run up to the iraq invasion the us media was instrumental in selling the case to the public the congress never had any proof ever present ever of weapons of mass destruction all came from tony blair and bush and congress who writes now that the us has drawn a red line on syria it has made it clear it's ready to take action but how i'm not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of. a credible evidence that the assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people but suffice it to say we are certainly planning to. take action if that eventuality were to occur to american warships are

already near the syrian coast with some ten thousand. u.s. marines and dozens of fighter jets on board on top of that nato is sending american german and dutch batteries of patriot anti-aircraft missiles to turkey's border with syria meaning hundreds more u.s. and european troops will be deployed to the frontier nato says deploying patriot missiles along syrian borders is a defensive step to prevent syria from attacking turkey i don't think there's any requirement whatsoever for patriot batteries on the ground in turkey again the patriot missiles are designed to really protect primarily against incoming fire ballistic missiles or aircraft the syrians are not going to attack the turks the turks of the most powerful military establishment in the region the largest army in nato and intervention in syria will be as bad if not worse than what we experienced in iraq the pentagon said they would need seventy five thousand troops to secure

syria's weapons of mass destruction the question on everyone's mind is are they seriously considering that kind of a mess of intervention because that could mean another you rock coming soon and invasion that could be followed by years of bloody civil war in washington i'm going to check on at asia times correspondent have escobar thinks the reason why the syrian regime could be relocating their chemical weapons is to put them out of the reach of the militias. every massacre that happens anywhere even in the suburbs of damascus we know these are people there in through train and by islamists gangs as well and sometimes these are protected by these weapons against themselves supported by saudi arabia some bike out there logistical support by turkey buying weapons in the black market the in the middle east and as far as ukraine as we already know we have to analyze the picture of missiles at the border with that latest high by the usual year and name u.s. officials chemical weapons being deployed out of ourselves are just completely

absurd hype is saying that they are right the mixing of the components the components are mixed when you already have a weapon already loaded with this components which are kept separate and then the chemical reaction itself happens inside the missile after it has been wrong still nobody is mixing any saying at the moment what we. speculate but with a certain degree of reason is that they may be moving some of these chemical weapons so they won't be captured by some of this is not missed gangs in fact at beach or a missile is an attack weapon is not a deterrent eddo especially considering that the syrian army would never launched missiles across the border against circuit because they know they will be attacking a nato ally and. and just to have for you disunited states we report on the growing separatism sentiment in american society that's already made up to

a million people go online to vote for secession from washington. but the latest figure suggests the u.k.'s multi-billion pound program to provide long term jobs is failing to be unemployed the details are coming up shortly. before that israel said earlier in the week it will continue its settlement expansion that's despite a recent un vote that upgrade to the palestinian ministrations diplomatic status as rules announcement drew widespread criticism from the un and other major western nations including its main ally the united states meanwhile thousands of people in gaza have joined celebrations marking the twenty fifth anniversary of hamas the leader of the islam is group khalid meshaal who has vowed to liberate palestine inch by inch called for arab countries to keep on defying israel british m.p. jeremy corbyn says israel is risking losing international support. netanyahu seems

simply to have not cottoned onto the fact that the vast majority of the world support the right of palestine to exist support the right of palestinians and therefore not provoke people of the west bank two state solution is something that everyone is wonderful signed up to but the reality on the ground of still not having complete free movement in and out and the huge number of settlements across the west bank on the circular roads and of course the problems of east jerusalem suggests that it's quite difficult to achieve it unless there's a real will to withdraw the subtle palestine to develop and i don't see that will at all with netanyahu if he can't even rely on governments that are basically quite sympathetic to israel and israel's claims then he's losing out big time all around the world and he just needs to wake up i think the washington support will weigh in very quickly obama has been reelected on the reelected president into a second at his most powerful and i think the lesson here who might do well to

remember that he also very much involved himself in the internal politics the usa during the election campaign in that can't even do it himself very much the administration the movement around the world for palestine for palestinian people is unprecedented netanyahu should wake up and recognize that and staying with israel every year either countries import tons of products from the country yet a lot of these products actually originate in illegal settlements on palestinian lands or disappear all over has been finding out more and calls where the end of walk to ban the trade. produce of israel except this isn't israel this is the jordan valley in the west bank and this farm is deemed illegal under international law the european union imports around three hundred million dollars worth of products from here each year now a group of twenty two n.g.o.s from across europe is looking to highlight the issue

and it's published a report in which it claims imports make the settlements viable because they are produced in illegal settlements which are contrary to international humanitarian law should be banned out of the european union now if this is not possible at least the consumers have to have the possibility to. to decide for themselves if they want to buy products which have been produced in illegal settlements your see farms this land is much concerned by the thoughts of european n.g.o.s he says he's here because his government told him it was ok to be here. because i was told he. saw a circle where i was told they could do it to morrow the state of israel told me time to go i'll go i'm told i'm an occupier when i got here there was nothing. we made oldest. in denmark and the united kingdom goods coming from settlements in the west bank already has to be marked differently to denote that it's not from israel the

collective n.g.o.s want to see this implemented europe wide here in europe there are many people with ties to the middle east region and they want to make sure they know exactly where their produce is coming from. are you sure this comes from spain . ella is a palestinian living in germany she has family in the west bank and says the israeli checkpoints mean palestinian farmers are losing out to the circle as even even the few things they get to jordan they really checkpoints keep them at the checkpoints for days in the sun. and then you can't eat vegetables anymore those behind the report into trade between the settlements in europe say they own trying to organize any kind of witch hunt but we're not talking about boycotting jews over here we're not talking about even boycotting israel itself we're talking about making a difference differentiating between. legal israeli products which should be

bought by european citizens as much as the course issue and certain products which are totally illegal and should be banned and people should not be. belgium is a high terrorist alert as we report online that's had a piece of a highly provocative film exploring as long reportedly made in cooperation whether the koran burning u.s. pastor terry jones. and tens of thousands and kuwait demand the dissolution of the newly elected parliament we have the pictures that are teed off. americans in their hundreds of thousands in all fifty states have gone online to say they want their state and the panel from washington are. try to find out why more and more of us nationals are eager to rip the stars and stripes apart. tonight

. or tomorrow or in the years after the former colonies won the right to determine its all best of the. test a perfect thing for you moves forward. for weeks following barack obama's reelection nearly one million americans have moved forward by campaigning to break apart all fifty states have filed online petitions with the white house requesting to peacefully secede from the so-called perfecting union a movement that's garnered more than thirty thousand signatures in north carolina where many like michael tuggle. see independence as a symbol may twentieth a consistent one is the day that north carolina sated from the union and america's stars and stripes ripping at the seams there's no doubt in my mind that it is inevitable i mean something like this with the the debt this country has with the

growing disunion among in the among the people they can't last forever and that's the lesson of history big empires always collapse on their own weight secession supporters like bernard first some say washington's weight of growing debt and lists wars government intrusion and a broken immigration system has become a bipartisan destructive force it's beyond reform you can't reform that federal government whether it's the republicans in charge or obama basically the republicans are just as bad as far as we're concerned they're corrupt and are out of touch in southern former confederate states like north carolina culture and social issues play a big role for those like harold cruz who believes the u.s. is too big and thus destined to fail and the south general. are different country already and the united states we simply need our own government we have different values different belief systems critics have dismissed

secessionists as disgruntled voters angry over president obama's second term however in the two thousand and eight presidential election obama became the first democrat in more than thirty years to win north carolina a red state turned blue with the promise of change four years later tens of thousands of voters in the very same state believe they'd be better off on their own. the average american the things they believe in they're tired of the endless wars and here we are talking about invading iran now i can't think of anything more the white house meanwhile promises to review and issue an official response to all petitions with twenty five thousand or more. signatories at least seven states fit that category that we used to be on the interstate driving along at thirty five miles an hour by ourselves with the such and as a goal now we're being passed on both sides and lanes by people going faster than we are and it's amazing because here we were thought to be radical fifteen or ten

years ago and now we're mainstream. a mainstream movement to move apart marina port nial arts. eurozone finance ministers house boasts of spain's beleaguered banks by approving a forty billing you were rescue package for them back in june the same minister said they were ready to provide aid of up to one hundred billion euros the spikes the recession dritte a strong all cost to avoid asking for a sovereign bailout dutch politician to one man or says the spanish government has brought the crisis on itself there is a fundamental flaw within the banking system which is that. the government has basically taken over the banks that created the banking cartel degree of the central bank and they allow banks to print money that is not covered by anything the government does intervene too much in the market. and the way to solve the

problem is by government withdrawing by shrinking the role of government by getting government to spend less and types less and regulate less that is what will get economy back in order and that's what will. cause the job rate to grow again and unemployment to disappear. so. failing companies being supported by governments is only a very short term solution in the long term it is a disaster. the u.k. government's flagship work program aimed at lowering britain's long term unemployment rate is failing to get people into jobs the five billion pounds scheme has so far only got around three percent of job seekers off welfare sarah firth has the story. some months now twenty five year old jay paxton's been keeping a video diary about his experiences on the government's work programme. to work programs the government's flagship scheme that pays private sector

organizations to place people in work and they called it a revolution in welfare but the first figures released since its launch revealed a resoundingly failure something that hasn't surprised slightest thirty eight are going to keep his appointment now it seems pretty tightly regiments that we watch people running in all morning to keep that appointment being coming to this job center once a fortnight for the past six months that he's been on the government's work programme in the time he hasn't found a single job unfortunately that's not uncommon the latest figures released by the department of work and pensions say the show is just one of hundreds of thousands of people signed up to that work program he's found absolutely nothing. in fact between jean two thousand and eleven and july this year of all the people

who were signed up to the work programme only three point four percent were found work far below the target of five point five percent which is the number of people who find work without any sort of programme it means that people like the typically less likely to find a job than if there are no work programme whatsoever can you talk as he is to the last six months what has the experience been and on a daily basis with this work programme well. i'm starting one of the definition of insanity is to do one thing to repeat product and expect a different result and after. doing the same thing and getting the same results for six months i'm starting to feel pretty insane and it is maddening the frustration the anguish despair most of the time when the experience is having serious effects

are actually gone to the doctors a couple of times because of our. problems i'm sleeping way too much much of the doctors there sounds interesting from what sounds pretty terrific. so i filled in the chalk listeners like you got clinical depression. figures. i was like yeah draw on science i'm going to be the next greatest thing show the world it's like i don't want to take these pills i'd rather do something more constructive so things are pretty much where it's gone. tells us that the one size fits all formats is the work program it's stifling the individuality of young. people i speak to quite intelligent quite bright some of them have to preserve them . and some of them are quite well skilled and they hate being told what to do and they like to take appropriate action for themselves and usually quite good at

finding work for themselves. in these difficult with a work program what we see now is that in fact when you get the best of the private sector involved when you pay them lots of money they actually do worse than doing nothing at all we asked the government why the program was pretty seeing such poor results and why the figures they really seem designed to musk the chilly extent of the faith. they responded saying. it's ridiculous to suggest the work programme is not helping people into work despite being faced with their own shortcomings it seems the government still doesn't want to listen to people like a telling the loud and clear i regret to inform you that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful. surf to london by layer in the program here in our brutal taxation frustration is rising in britain where a some citizens are losing more than two thirds of their monthly income in taxes

while not receiving much needed benefits and retiring the story and more after a short break here on r.t. . download the official t. application so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's t.v. is not required to watch on t.v. all you need is your mobile device to watch our team any time and. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

welcome back you're watching r.t. live from moscow now a new research suggests britain is one of the toughest countries to live in when it comes to paying taxes evidence shows some households are handing over the lion's share of the or income tax with little hope of getting file benefits and return our boyko reports up to seventy three percent that's the amount of tax that your average british household pays once an average british household that's two kids two parents with one breadwinner so a lot of people who are just trying to raise a family being called goodbye this tax that goes towards your income tax your national insurance a lot of other european developed countries they also pay a high rate of tax but nowhere near as high as the u.k. we've got the.